New Delhi: Air Marshal Tejinder Singh took over on Wednesday as the chief of Integrated Defence Staff to Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee (CISC) at the Headquarters Integrated Defence Staff (HQ IDS) here in the national capital. The post is the second-highest triservice appointment in the country’s higher defence organization after the chief of defence staff (CDS).
The appointment was marked by a ceremonial triservice guard of honour, after which Air Marshal Singh laid a wreath at the National War Memorial to pay tribute to soldiers who died in service of the nation.
AM Singh moves into the post from his previous assignment as air officer commanding in chief (AOC-in-C), South Western Air Command, one of the Indian Air Force’s operational commands. His posting continues an unbroken run of air force officers at the helm of the Integrated Defence Staff (IDS) – an inter-service body responsible for joint doctrine, planning and coordination among the Army, the Navy and the Air Force – since May 2025.
He succeeds Air Marshal Ashutosh Dixit, who demitted the CISC office on Tuesday, after a 14-month tenure during which the IDS coordinated closely with the three services through Operation Sindoor and oversaw the release of more than a dozen joint triservice doctrines. AM Dixit has since moved to a fresh appointment as vice chief of the air staff.
A career fighter pilot, Air Marshal Singh was commissioned into the fighter stream of the Air Force on June 13, 1987. He is a “Category A” qualified flying instructor with more than 4,500 hours of flying experience, and has commanded a fighter squadron, a radar station and a premier fighter base over a career spanning nearly four decades. He also served as air officer commanding, Jammu & Kashmir, a frontline operational charge given the region’s strategic sensitivity.
His staff record includes tenures as air commodore (personnel officers-1) at Air Headquarters, deputy assistant chief of Integrated Defence Staff (financial planning) at HQ IDS, air commodore (aerospace safety), and assistant chief of air staff for both operations (offensive) and operations (strategy) at Air Headquarters. He later served as senior air staff officer, Eastern Air Command, before being promoted deputy chief of the air staff and subsequently AOC-in-C, Training Command.
AM Singh is an alumnus of the National Defence Academy, the Defence Services Staff College and the National Defence College. His service record has been recognized with the Vayu Sena Medal in 2007, the Ati Vishisht Seva Medal in 2022 and, most recently, the Param Vishisht Seva Medal earlier this year – India’s second-highest peacetime gallantry-cum-distinguished-service award, typically reserved for officers of exceptional distinction at the highest levels of command.
The CISC post, created in 2001, has traditionally rotated among the three services and ranks equivalent to a vice chief of staff, sitting just below the chief of defence staff in the military hierarchy. It carries responsibility for triservice jointness, budgetary coordination and doctrine formulation, functions that have grown in prominence following the creation of the chief of defence staff’s office in 2019 and the push towards greater integration among the Army, the Navy and the Air Force.
The change of guard at IDS Headquarters comes within days of two other major service-level transitions: Admiral Krishna Swaminathan taking over as the 27th chief of the naval staff and Lieutenant General Dhiraj Seth being appointed the 31st chief of the Army staff, both effective this season, underlining a broader churn atop India’s military leadership through mid-2026.